Israel's richest woman gets messages, has visions

By Tova Cohen and Steven Scheer

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Shari Arison, Israel's richest woman and the controlling shareholder of the country's second-largest bank, said on Sunday she has visions and receives messages "from above," but they do not influence the management of her companies.

Arison set off an uproar in Israel after she revealed that information in an interview with Channel Two broadcast late on Saturday.

"I get a picture, I can feel it. If it's fire, I feel like I'm burning. If people are dying I feel pain," she confirmed in an interview with Reuters.

The Israeli-American Arison along with her brother inherited billions of dollars from her late father Ted Arison, who founded Carnival Corp, the world's biggest cruise ship operator.

She is the controlling shareholder in Bank Hapoalim and controls Housing and Construction, Israel's biggest construction company.

She said these visions are meant to help lead the world elsewhere. To this end, she is releasing her first book this week, entitled "Birth - When the Spiritual and the Material Come Together," which details her journey both spiritually and in business.

She stressed that her visions do not interfere with the running of Hapoalim, in which she has no active role.

"The bank is managed very professionally, there's a chairman and a board and everything is done according to law. It's not my visions that run the bank, that's ridiculous ... there's nothing to be worried about," she said.